Ratings 12/08  
Ratings (December 8)

The computer bashing continues, with the experts heaping scorn on the idiot machines responsible for Nebraska taking Colorado's rightful spot (or was that Oregon's rightful spot?) against Miami. You'll notice that my computer agrees completely with the Rose Bowl match-up. It seems to me that one of the big issues that is not being talked about is the relative importance of having a great overall season versus finshing the year as a "hot" team. For example, we're all OK with Miami being number 1 right now, although some say that Colorado is playing better. So, what if Miami loses a close game to Nebraska? Is it absolutely required that Miami no longer be number 1? My guess is that the computer would keep Miami number 1, and I think that there's an argument a Miami 11-1 season would compare well to anybody else's season. But I guess that if Miami could remain number 1, there would be no reason to play the Rose Bowl (and sell all those ads). But isn't it possible that our enjoyment from seeing the old #1 upset and getting a new #1 clouds our judgment of who deserves the national championship? Or perhaps it's just that we're so attuned to lose-and-go-home playoffs that we want the losers to go home. We just got rid of Nebraska, what are they doing in the Rose Bowl?

Here are some of the "highlights" that the bowl selection process has given us this year.
Best Teams Not in a Bowl: UCLA (#12), Hawaii (#39), Notre Dame (#40), Penn State (#41), Indiana (#45)
Worst Teams in a Bowl: North Texas (#92), TCU (#80), Cincinnati (#79), East Carolina (#64), La Tech (#57)
Best Bowl Games: #1 - Rose Bowl, #2 - Fiesta, #3 - Orange, #4 - Citrus, #5 - Holiday
Worst Bowl Games: #25 - New Orleans Bowl, #24 - Motor City, #23 - GalleryFurniture, #22 - GMAC

The following predictions are straight from the ratings.

New Orleans Bowl:    Colorado State over North Texas by 12
12/18: North Texas, at 5-6, is more green than mean.
GMAC Bowl:    Marshall over East Carolina by 6
12/18: The Herd has the most efficient passing this side of Florida.
Tangerine Bowl:    NC State over Pittsburgh by 4
12/20: The Woofpack improved as the season went on.
Las Vegas Bowl:    Southern Cal over Utah by 4
12/25: Can the old powerhouse overcome the Utes?
Seattle Bowl:    Stanford over Georgia Tech by 13
12/27: Tech's a wreck as they face a top 10 team with their ex-coach off chasing Lucky Charms.
Independence Bowl:    Alabama over Iowa State by 1
12/27: How things change. Alabama is actually pleased to be here.
GalleryFurniture Bowl:    Texas A&M over TCU by 13
12/28: Sit back and watch the Aggies gig their old SWC foe.
Music City Bowl:    Georgia over Boston College by 3
12/28: The middle of the SEC against the middle of the Big East.
Holiday Bowl:    Texas over Washington by 9
12/28: The best December bowl. Both teams come off bad losses.
Motor City Bowl:    Toledo over Cincinnati by 6
12/28: Can the MAC cruise in both of its bowl games?
Alamo Bowl:    Texas Tech over Iowa by 2
12/28: Bob Knight and a bowl game? Go, Red Raiders!
Insight.com Bowl:    Kansas State over Syracuse by 2
12/28: K-State is a computer favorite despite their 6-5 record.
Humanitarian Bowl:    Clemson over Louisiana Tech by 0
12/31: Woody Dantzler passed for 2000 and ran for 1000. New Year's Eve in Idaho doesn't seem very humane.
Sun Bowl:    Washington State over Purdue by 14
12/31: Purdue may be giving up points out the WSU.
Silicon Valley Bowl:    Fresno State over Michigan State by 9
12/31: Fresno looks to improve to 2-0 in the Big 10.
Liberty Bowl:    BYU over Louisville by 7
12/31: BYU lost their unbeaten season by losing in their last game by 27 points; I guess if they'd scored one more point they'd be in the Rose Bowl.
Peach Bowl:    North Carolina over Auburn by 0
12/31: Two teams that specialized in upsets (both good and bad). Who wins if neither is favored?
Cotton Bowl:    Oklahoma over Arkansas by 11
1/1: Would have been a matchup of great teams in a great bowl in the sixties. Retro uniforms, perhaps?
Outback Bowl:    South Carolina over Ohio State by 2
1/1: A rematch of last year's Gamecock uprising. It may be hard to repeat.
Gator Bowl:    Florida State over Virginia Tech by 0
1/1: A rematch of the 2000 title game, without Michael Vick and most of the interest.
Citrus Bowl:    Tennessee over Michigan by 4
1/1: Which Tennessee offense will show up, the one that dominated Florida or the one that struggled against LSU?
Fiesta Bowl:    Oregon over Colorado by 1
1/1: Best New Year's Day bowl. Two teams that claim to be shouldabeens, but are they just wannabes?
Sugar Bowl:    Illinois over LSU by 3
1/1: Two surprise conference champs. Will LSU still be hot after a month off?
Orange Bowl:    Florida over Maryland by 8
1/2: Major mismatch or more Maryland magic? The computer thinks mismatch.
Rose Bowl:    Miami over Nebraska by 5
1/3: Another title on the line between these two. The underdog won the other two.

1 Miami 73.00
2 Nebraska 67.89
3 Florida 67.62
4 Texas 66.34
5 Oregon 65.38
6 Colorado 64.72
7 Tennessee 63.95
8 Washington State 63.69
9 Oklahoma 63.67
10 Stanford 62.85
11 Illinois 61.86
12 UCLA 59.93
13 Michigan 59.56
14 Maryland 59.28
15 BYU 59.08
16 Kansas State 58.93
17 LSU 58.84
18 Fresno State 58.63
19 Washington 57.25
20 Syracuse 57.11
21 Florida State 56.79
22 Virginia Tech 56.63
23 Southern Cal 56.26
24 Texas Tech 56.24
25 South Carolina 55.98
26 Georgia 55.44
27 Ohio State 54.29
28 Iowa 53.76
29 Texas A&M 53.44
30 Alabama 53.24
31 North Carolina 52.93
32 Arkansas 52.86
33 Auburn 52.55
34 Iowa State 52.53
35 Boston College 52.46
36 Utah 52.24
37 Louisville 51.75
38 NC State 51.10
39 Hawaii 50.68
40 Notre Dame 50.42
41 Penn State 50.35
42 Georgia Tech 50.26
43 Michigan State 50.12
44 Marshall 49.60
45 Indiana 49.42
46 Purdue 49.39
47 Oregon State 49.30
48 Bowling Green 48.89
49 Boise State 48.87
50 Ole Miss 48.84
51 Wisconsin 47.64
52 Colorado State 47.64
53 Pittsburgh 47.60
54 Arizona State 47.46
55 Clemson 46.95
56 Toledo 46.91
57 Louisiana Tech 46.81
58 Arizona 45.51
59 Oklahoma State 45.25
60 New Mexico 44.89
61 Wake Forest 44.85
62 Southern Miss 44.61
63 Miami 44.22
64 East Carolina 44.08
65 Central Florida 43.69
66 Missouri 43.62
67 South Florida 43.37
68 Minnesota 43.35
69 Mississippi State 42.90
70 Rice 42.65
71 Northwestern 42.62
72 Virginia 42.12
73 Middle Tennessee 41.82
74 West Virginia 41.32
75 UNLV 41.30
76 Air Force 41.10
77 UAB 40.74
78 Troy State 40.64
79 Cincinnati 40.60
80 TCU 40.15
81 Northern Illinois 40.01
82 Kansas 39.76
83 Memphis 39.54
84 Kentucky 39.48
85 Western Michigan 38.47
86 Kent State 38.14
87 Baylor 37.37
88 Temple 37.23
89 California 36.91
90 SMU 36.25
91 Utah State 35.76
92 North Texas 35.48
93 San Jose State 34.89
94 San Diego State 34.65
95 Akron 34.05
96 Nevada 34.04
97 Vanderbilt 33.63
98 Ball State 33.11
99 New Mexico State 32.11
100 Ohio 31.00
101 Wyoming 30.02
102 Tulane 29.89
103 Central Michigan 27.69
104 Army 25.86
105 UTEP 25.60
106 Duke 25.42
107 Tulsa 24.89
108 Rutgers 24.89
109 Buffalo 24.72
110 Houston 23.84
111 La-Lafayette 23.13
112 Navy 21.73
113 Idaho 20.45
114 Connecticut 20.24
115 La-Monroe 19.85
116 Eastern Michigan 19.71
117 Arkansas State 18.04